Endangered Species Day

 Today is Endangered Species Day, and coincidentally, I spent my morning looking out for some very special endangered birds right here in NYC. I have been spending some time volunteering with the NYC Plover Project especially as I am in the midst of a transitional point in my career. 

There are less than 8,000 piping plovers left in the world. Less than 100 nest around NYC. New York City is a coastal city, 4 of its 5 boroughs are on islands (Brooklyn and Queens, get over it, geographically, you're Long Island -- just FYI it was very hard to not write the phonetical pronunciation "Lawng Eyeland"). Any who, we have habitat that these birds have used for nest sites, historically and they sure as heck need our help because since people have come along, they don't realize that these birds and other animals are here and how even just little actions like walking near a nest could be life or death for a plover, its future offspring, or chicks.

As always, I will share that the photos I take are zoomed in at 500mm and heavily cropped after the fact. When birds walk toward me I give them space.

A female piping plover along the beach. These birds can practically be underfoot if you don't realize they exist. Their coloration is great camouflage, and it works too well!

Shaorebirds are diverse in size, shape, and structure. The sanderling in front is a type of sandpiper, the piping plover is well, a plover. Both are what we collectively call shorebirds. Sanderlings, unlike piping plovers do not breed here, they breed in the high arctic.

So why are dogs not permitted on beaches after a certain date?
The answer is right here. I promise you that dogs are happy to play and run ANYWHERE. Come to the beach in the offseason (but still with a leash!) and enjoy yourselves. But for spring and summer, please share the shore. Dogs are perceived as predators, even just their presence, walking by your side can cause abandonment of nests and even trampling of chicks.

So what, if a bird is chased off, it didn't get hurt!
The issue here is that these birds running from us, dogs, or anything that is a perceived danger (even if we don't mean for it to be) results in loss of energy. That means they have to find more food and make up for what was lost due to unnecessary caloric burn.

I always wonder what little animals can see that larger animals, like us, cannot. They key in on tiny things and somehow eat it.

This plover was doing a fun little move for agitating the wet sand to stir up potential prey. I call it the foot jiggle, maybe it has a real name. They basically jiggle their foot in wet sand, vigorously. The sand, freshly wet is loose and the agitation can reveal critters that would make a delicious bite to eat, for a plover.

At one point I got caught between two foraging plovers. I backed up from the shoreline onto the beach. The female ran to the male and they did this posturing at one another, standing tall. First she did, then (pictured here) he did. Then they foraged a bit together, and foraged in the same general direction down the beach.
With a warm weekend coming up, surely the beach will be flooded with eager people, who are tired of second, third, and fourth winters that we have had. So I might even stop down tomorrow with the kiddo for a short time to make sure people are sharing the shore and maybe teaching some folks about one very cute, little, endangered bird.